Centrifugal pumps must often be located in remote geographical areas. When one of the pumps fails, the expense of transporting the pump to a repair facility usually represents a greater cost than the cost of the repair. Moreover, the repair of a pump necessitates shutting down various plant equipment, which sometimes represents a great expense.
Pump failure often occurs because of malfunction of the journal means located between the pump seal and the prime mover. When the pump fails, it is customary to transport the faulty pump to a suitable repair facility and to carry out the necessary machine work to replace the bearings as may be required.
It would be desirable to be able to repair the outboard journal means of a pump assembly without the necessity of transporting the pump to a repair facility. It would especially be desirable if the journal could be replaced without the use of engine lathes and other specialized machine shop equipment. This is a subject of the present invention.